Friday, May 9, 2008

Oh man. Lately I have been really grumpy about having to go to work. I am sooooooo tired of looking at a computer. Seriously. I just want to be outside making a mess in the dirt or eating ice cream on the porch or playing tunes as it grows dark. Fortunately, we are taking three weeks off to get married, and hello, that is gonna be soon. Don’t anybody freak out now.

In the meantime. The garden is 100% planted. I am actually kind of sad about it. Now I’m just supposed to water and weed and look for bad bugs. And eat! We have some lettuce aphids already, but we had those last year and they didn’t really do any damage. Am I being a dork if I don’t take them seriously? We need some ladybugs or whatever, but no one sells them locally and that seems like one of those lame things to have sent across the country. Our garden stores here are so lousy, I can never find any of the organic stuff I read about. Oh well. B. is going to build me another bed which I will let myself plant with a ton of flowers and soon all the good insects will party at my house all summer long.

Silver Thyme

Anyway, after going on and on about how we were not going to grow any tomatoes, we did anyway. Tomatoes are a lot of work around here, because we get blight and we get it bad. Plus I find the whole process of wrangling them off the ground to be very taxing. I am very interested in this whole growing of tomatoes upside down in buckets or growing them around a rope or whatever, but so far building those kinds of contraptions has not been high on the construction list. (Meaning, B’s list of course. Oh how I love my guy. Just yesterday I came home and he had dug up this enormous privet and multiflora rose stump thingy. I cannot emphasize the huge part enough. The people who built this house were totally privet happy, and we will not rest until they are all eradicated, even if it will take us 900 years. Anyway. So, the stump situation was so big that we had a professional tell us that the best way to get it out was with a big truck and a chain. So every now and then I’d be like “Honey, when is your friend with the big truck and the chain gonna get that stump out?” Because, of course, we planted a baby peach tree practically right next to the stump thinking that we would of course get the stump out before the peach tree grew any roots. Riiiiiight. Anyway, I just came home and the stump was gone. Evidently he was tired of waiting on the big truck too, so he just got out there with a pickaxe and a shovel and went to town. See how exciting my life is? Seriously, this stuff makes me insanely happy and makes me fall 900 times more in love with him when just yesterday I was sure that if I loved him any more I would just not be able to deal.) ANYWAY. We are talking about tomatoes here Heather, get with it. A few weeks ago I read this, which was just so invitingly written that I immediately decided that we were going to plant our tomatoes this way. For those of you who do not have time to read it, she tells you to dig a huge freakin’ hole for your tiny seedlings, and to put all kinds of exciting things in the hole (worm castings, egg shells, aspirin, etc.) so as to know that you are sticking your little tomato baby into one awesomely prepared soil zone. I love this! Plus, if you move your tomatoes around every year like you are supposed to, you will eventually dig and fertilize the hell out of your whole garden. I planted a Black Krim (I love that name), and a Cherokee Purple, and a Rutgers. They just looked the best in the seedling department, I feel no great need to get all freaky on what kinds we grow. Yet.

In other excitement, I ordered seed garlic for the fall from here. Yes, already. I have been reading about garlic growing, and two things kept popping up: order your garlic from a place that just does garlic, and order early because orders are packed in the order they get them so if you order late you get little bulbs, and little mama bulbs tend to make little baby bulbs, etc. I ordered this variety pack, because I was so excited about all the kinds that I just couldn’t handle making a decision. They sent me a sweet little email from a real human and I will let you know how our garlic turns out. I absolutely love that you really don’t ever need to buy seed garlic after you have done it once (providing that you have an ok crop and can keep yourself from eating it all). Letting all your other plants go to seed in order to not have to buy seeds again is not really practical for a four-season gardener. Oh well, buying seeds is crazy fun.

Some Red Russian Kale thinnings and some Baby Bok Choy for dinner. Man, Baby Bok Choy is what you should grow if you are an impatient gardener. The seeds beat even the arugula in the germination department, and they are begging to be eaten right now (spring crops of this tend to bolt, you can get more time out of them in the fall).

5 comments:

Oh, man, your edibles are gorgeous. Are you all green thumbs? Guess you might be clutzy, but it's worth it!

I'm growing Black Krim, too, my one and only tomato, so far. It just sounds so sexy. Wait, I think we talked about this before...anyway, if I'm remembering correctly, I hope they grow better for you this year!

I totally sympathize about missing the action of early spring seed-starting. Well, you should totally grow lots of warm-weather crops and maybe a ground cherry or something (I just heard about these and they sound like tons of edible fun).

I am soooo right there with you on the "why can't I just quit my day job and hang out in my garden all day?" BUT, since I do run a pretty awesome garden center for a living...I guess I could have more to complain about! It's too bad about your garden center situation. My store carries a ton of great organic products...If you're ever looking for something specific and you can't get your hands on it let me know...that's what snail mail is for right? Leslie www.growlively.typepad.com